Displays and projectors
All the archived HD content in the world won't do you any good without a decent display to show it off. Some entertainment PCs are intended for big-screen home theaters, others make a mini movie house out of a standard computer monitor in a den or a dorm room.

LCD
LCD is where most of the action is these days. Improved black levels, lower prices, and bigger screens mean that LCDs are a common sight on almost every desk, and their big-screen cousins are gradually replacing plasma displays as the home-theater flat screen of choice.

Plasma
The turn-of-the-millennium status symbol is now merely an extravagant splurge, with prices for 42-inch sets dropping to $1,700 and below (start looking for spare change in the couch cushions). LCDs might be the big-screen technology of the future, but for right now, you won't find a brighter, crisper, wall-mountable display.

Projectors
If even a 50- or 60-inch plasma display is just too small for your movie-mogul dreams, join the growing projector community. Carelessly installed and set up, projectors can look washed out, but in a lighttight room with a proper screen (or a screen-painted wall), you can't get a more cinematic experience outside of the multiplex.